The Shark: Forgotten Files, Book 1

At the grisly murder scene of a teen prostitute, Virginia state trooper Riley Tatum's past roars back to haunt her. When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards. Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley's old flame, is Shield Security's newest member. He's plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game.

Resuscitation

Two years ago, after narrowly escaping the clutches of a psychotic serial killer, San Diego homicide detective Sami Rizzo hung up her badge. And despite the feeling of regret that has haunted her since she resigned, Sami convinced herself that she is happier off the beat. But when a body, dressed to the nines, turns up in San Diego’s Mission Bay Park displaying a split sternum with surgical precision, Sami’s interest is piqued.

The Drowned Girls: An Angie Pallorino Novel, Book 1

Detective Angie Pallorino hasn't forgotten the violent rapist who left a distinctive calling card - crosses etched into the flesh of his victim's foreheads. When a comatose Jane Doe is found in a local cemetery, sexually assaulted, mutilated, and nearly drowned, Angie is struck by the eerie similarities to her earlier unsolved rapes. Could he be back?

Stillhouse Lake

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband's crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace. But just when she's starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake - and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address.

Repressed: Deadly Secrets, Book 1

Hidden Falls is exactly as Samantha Parker left it - small, insular, and prone to gossip. Eighteen years have passed since she witnessed her brother's murder, but she's still the talk of the town. Until a handsome child psychologist with haunting memories of his own arrives. Dr. Ethan McClane isn't exactly a newcomer. If it weren't for his latest case, he'd never set foot back in Hidden Falls. Thankfully, no one seems to recognize him as the troubled teen from years past.

Exhume: Dr. Schwartzman, Book 1

Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman has finally found a place to belong. As the medical examiner for the San Francisco Police Department, working alongside homicide detective Hal Harris, she uncovers the tales the dead can't tell about their final moments. It is a job that gives her purpose - and a safe haven from her former life at the hands of an abusive husband. Although it's been seven years since she escaped that ordeal, she still checks over her shoulder to make sure no one is behind her.

The Missing Ones: Detective Lottie Parker, Book 1

When a woman's body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It's clear the pair are connected, but how? The trail leads Lottie to St Angela's, a former children's home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal.

The Slow Burn of Silence: A Snowy Creek Novel, Book 1

From award-winning romance author Loreth Anne White comes a story of justice, loyalty, and unbreakable bonds that is both a thrilling mystery and a moving love story. Newly exonerated ex-con Jeb Cullen is determined to prove his innocence to his former neighbors and win back the heart of Rachel Salonen, the only woman he’s ever loved. Nine years after her testimony helped put Jeb behind bars, Rachel’s life is finally getting back to normal. But it’s turned upside down by the sudden death of her sister...

The Academy: A Short Story

Quitting her job as a high school science teacher to join the Seattle Police Department was an easy decision for Tracy Crosswhite. Years earlier, what should have been one of the happiest days of her life instead became her worst nightmare when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. After the murder trial, while her family disintegrated, Tracy turned her heartbreak and her lingering questions into a passion for justice.

Blood Defense

Samantha Brinkman, an ambitious, hard-charging Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, is struggling to make a name for herself and to drag her fledgling practice into the big leagues. Sam lands a high-profile double-murder case in which one of the victims is a beloved TV star - and the defendant is a decorated veteran LAPD detective. It promises to be exactly the kind of media sensation that would establish her as a heavy hitter in the world of criminal law.

Walk into Silence

When Patrick Dielman shows up at Detective Jo Larsen's desk insisting that his wife, Jenny, is missing, Jo wonders if it's a case of a bored housewife running away. But as she digs deeper into Jenny's life, Jo learns that Dielman keeps a stranglehold on the family finances, down to the last nickel, and that Jenny's first marriage dissolved following the death of her young son.

The Sister

Grace hasn't been the same since the death of her best friend, Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie's words the last time she saw her and, in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie's. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn't know about her best friend. When Grace starts a campaign to find Charlie's father, Anna, a girl claiming to be Charlie's sister, steps forward. For Grace, finding Anna is like finding a new family, and soon Anna has made herself very comfortable in Grace and her boyfriend Dan's home. But something isn't right.

She's Not There: A Novel

A lifetime ago, every year Carole Shipley looked forward to her wedding anniversary. But then a celebratory trip to Mexico for the occasion with her husband and friends ended in the unsolved kidnapping of her infant daughter, Samantha. Now, 15 years after that horrific time, divorced and isolated, Carole is forced to relive the kidnapping by reporters who call every year on the anniversary of Samantha's disappearance.

A Criminal Defense

When a young reporter is found dead and a prominent Philadelphia businessman is accused of her murder, Mick McFarland finds himself involved in the case of his life. The defendant, David Hanson, is Mick's best friend, and the victim, a TV news reporter, had reached out to Mick for legal help only hours before her death. Mick's played both sides of Philadelphia's courtrooms. As a top-shelf defense attorney and former prosecutor, he knows all the tricks of the trade. And he'll need every one of them to win.

Forgotten Secrets

At age ten, Riley Lambert watched helplessly as her sister was abducted from her bedroom. Fifteen years later, she's channeled the pain of her past into a career as an FBI profiler. Riley devotes her life to bringing violent criminals to justice...and secretly uses government resources to search for her sister, who was never found. When Riley gets a call from the only man who's ever swept her off her feet with a killer two-step and dangerous smile - ex-Navy SEAL Thayne Blackwood of Singing River, Wyoming - it stirs up dark memories.

The Sound of Rain

Former homicide detective Nicole Foster has hit rock bottom. Driven off the force by her treacherous partner and lover, she's flat broke and struggling with a gambling addiction. All Nicole has left is the dream of a warm bed at a homeless shelter and the haunting memories of three-year-old Kelsey Chase - whose murder case ended her career. As Nicole obsesses over the old facts, she realizes everything about that case felt off.

Arctic Fire

The story went something like this: Troy Jensen, who sailed solo around the world and conquered the seven summits, fell off a crab boat called Arctic Fire and drowned in the Bering Sea. Troy’s brother Jack, who doesn’t buy the story for a minute, heads to Alaska to uncover the truth. Jack discovers a connection between Troy and a secret intelligence organization known as Red Cell Seven (RCS) that will stop at nothing to protect America from threat (even if they have to kill thousands of Americans to do it). The problem is, the more Jack learns about Troy’s involvement with RCS, the more RCS learns about Jack.

Harmony Black: Harmony Black 1

Harmony Black is much more than your average FBI special agent. In addition to being a practicing witch, she's also an operative for Vigilant Lock, an off-the-books program created to battle occult threats - by any means necessary. Despite her dedication to fighting the monsters threatening society, Harmony has become deeply conflicted about her job. Her last investigation resulted in a pile of dead bodies, and she suspects the wrong people are being punished for it.

Blood on the Tracks: Sydney Rose Parnell Series, Book 1

A young woman is found brutally murdered, and the main suspect is the victim's fiancé, a hideously scarred Iraq War vet known as the Burned Man. But railroad police Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell, brought in by the Denver Major Crimes unit to help investigate, can't shake the feeling that larger forces are behind this apparent crime of passion. In the depths of an icy winter, Parnell and her K9 partner, Clyde - both haunted by their time in Iraq - descend into the world of a savage gang of rail riders.

Never Let You Go

Eleven years ago, Lindsey Nash escaped into the night with her young daughter and left an abusive relationship. Her ex-husband, Andrew, was sent to jail and Lindsey started over with a new life. Now, Lindsey is older and wiser, with her own business and a teenage daughter who needs her more than ever. When Andrew is finally released from prison, Lindsey believes she has cut all ties and left the past behind her. But she gets the sense that someone is watching her, tracking her every move.

Summit Lake

Some places seem too beautiful to be touched by horror. Summit Lake, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is that kind of place, with charming stilt houses dotted along the pristine water. But two weeks ago, Becca Eckersley, a first-year law student, was brutally murdered in one of those houses. The daughter of a powerful attorney, Becca was hard-working, accomplished, and ambitious. Now, while the town reels with grief and shocked residents gather to share their theories, the police are baffled.

Furious: Faith McMann, Book 1

Faith McMann comes home to a nightmare: her husband is killed and her son and daughter are taken. Although the intruders leave her for dead, she survives. Crippling grief and fear for her children make life unbearable. Until her anguish turns to anger...and she trades victimhood for vengeance.

Daddy's Home

A killer is roaming the streets of San Diego, preying on single mothers and their children with a depravity that few in the police department have ever seen. He’s hunting for the perfect family...and judging by the trail of bodies he’s left scattered across the city, this particular daddy is very hard to please. For Detective Holly Jennings, the search for the Family Man killer just got personal. Not only is she a single mother struggling, after the death of her husband, to raise her daughter, but now Holly’s friend and her daughter have become the Family Man’s latest victims.

The Professor: McMurtrie and Drake Legal, Book 1

Law professor Thomas Jackson McMurtrie literally wrote the book on evidence in the state of Alabama. But when a power-hungry colleague uses a recent run-in between McMurtrie and headstrong student Rick Drake to end his career, he is left unsure what to do next.

Publisher's Summary

Experience a new kind of terror. Meet Simon. This highly intelligent and deceptively charming physical therapist loves to touch people: "Inflicting pain through aggressive manipulation helped the healing process." Simon has a secret calling. He believes that God has given him absolute authority to purify his unholy victims through a ritual that ends in grisly crucifixions. Driven by twisted religious beliefs and guided by his dead mother, very much alive in his subconscious mind, Simon abducts "chosen ones" and holds them captive in a Room of Redemption. There, the victims helplessly await deliverance.

In this breakneck-paced, exquisitely horrific thriller, Detective Sami Rizzo is assigned to head a task force investigating serial killings in San Diego - brutal murders unlike anything the city has ever seen. Detective Rizzo urgently yearns to solve the case and gain the respect of her male colleagues, but her determination to apprehend the killer on her own clouds her thinking. When Simon outsmarts Rizzo, determined to make her his next victim, she must employ all her resources - both physical and intellectual - to beat the villain at his own game.

This is a typical serial killer book. The killer is text book to how you've always heard they should be. All stemming from a terrible mother and upbringing and really..when did I figure the female detective would be a captured victim? Well within the first 15 minutes of course. It's very predictable..very run of the mill. The narrator..well let's say I would suggest she never try a male voice again. Its nails on a chalkboard, making some sound slow witted and I personally found it agitating. Some books never die quietly either...

Oh yes. 100% yes with no qualifications. This was written in a fast-paced, exciting manner punctuated with some particularly gruesome torture murders. This novel handles the parallel existence of the protagonist and the serial killer and then throws them together as they are drawn to each other so well. The dialogue rings true for all characters and the story is vastly dark and interesting.The means of murder is unique and alarmingly evil. The killer is a true psychopath believable and relentless in his uncontrollable desires. The book just leaps from one acton scene to another at a blistering pace, holding attention to the incredible ending.It is so very rewarding to be able to write a review with zero negatives; it is just that kind of perfect book.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

More than any book in a long, long time. This book edges victims and the killer closer and closer together in an almost unbearable inevitability. You want to shout out to save the innocents. It all seems alarmingly real as you slip into the writer's work and the characters become real, human and so complex. The pace of the novel is fast and I like it. Each word moves you closer to the final confrontation with a roller coaster-like momentum.Finally, there are three significant characters in this book and they are fully developed as people and as persons caught in the web. These are real, people that you never lose interest and become emotionally engaged with.

Have you listened to any of Christina Traister’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have never heard this narrator's work before. She does male and female voices exceptionally well with each voice seeming unique and ringing true. Christiana Traister has a naturally beautiful voice that makes the listening compelling. This is a real work of art in the world of Audible narration and worthly of the term performance.This is not some simple read-through, it is a live performance with perfect tones of weariness, anger, fear, etc. The narrator is spot on in each and every line. Of course, having a very well written plot that zooms along is a great basis for such an excellent performance.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, unfortunately I do not have that kind of time block. You find yourself listening to extra chapters which is a way of saying that you don't want to put it down (shut it off). This book comes highly recommended in book format and in a variety of reviews. It is an excellent thriller.